A/N Yeah, I got a bit bored not writing anything! So here is a sequel to Homestay, it picks up right from the end of chapter 32. So I hope you all enjoy!

SPOV

I went to get Amelia and Felicia back from a rather stressed-looking Halleigh, who I think was having second thoughts about having more than one child. I looked at her swollen stomach, it was far, far too late for her to realise that now.

Amelia had to be prised away from where she was 'helping' Riley with a sticker book, which meant that she was putting the stickers in while he got to watch. She didn't want to come with me. I said there was a surprise at home and even that didn't work. I didn't want to say 'Guess what? Eric actually stayed' in front of Halleigh, as I didn't really feel comfortable with her knowing what was or wasn't going on at our house. But I would have thought she'd at least get interested enough to wonder if she was getting a marshmallow. She was obviously really upset.

So we walked home and in the front door. Amelia trudged into the family room with me behind her, carrying Felicia, and stopped when she saw Eric. "You didn't go?" she asked him.

Eric looked a bit worried. "Um, I did" he said "but I, um, came back." He looked at me to check that was right and I shrugged. I was really no help here. Amelia went racing over and hugged him. Oh good, I thought, this will cheer her up. But then she said "Mummy made you go and I was sad."

Eric looked a bit shocked "No, she didn't" he said "I, um, had to go…"

"That's what she always says. But you're back now." She threw herself at him with another hug, and then stalked off to her room.

I was stunned. She hated me. Thanks to my evil fucking mother in law, my 3 year old daughter hated me.

EPOV

I felt like shit. Amelia was upset with Sookie and it was all my fucking fault for leaving here the night before. I guess Sookie had told her I was gone and that was that. Fuck. The poor kid had already lost her dad and God knows what she'd thought when I disappeared. Shit, I was over my head with this as it was; I wasn't equipped to deal with Amelia's feelings.

And Sookie's feelings about Amelia, I realised as Sookie started banging things around in the kitchen, under the pretext of making lunch. Now she was pissed. Maybe I should have left this morning when I had the chance?

I went into the kitchen "Sookie, um, it's OK." She whipped around "What's OK Eric?" she said sharply. Shit, this was not going at all well. I'd been here officially, what, less than an hour? Fuck.

But then she sighed. "Look, sorry. It's not you; I'm just pissed off about the whole thing. Lorena didn't help at all."

I was happy I seemed to be out of the immediate firing line, but lost as to what else was going on. "Lorena? What, at the barbecue yesterday?"

"No, probably when she was babysitting at some stage. She told Amelia that I made Bill leave, and then Amelia thought I made you leave, and now she's completely confused the poor kid. She probably expects Bill to walk back in the door at any minute."

Yeah, thank fuck that wasn't happening.

"Oh, OK." I said. "Do you want me to, um, talk to her?"

Sookie looked at me. "No, I think I'll just wait a bit for her to get over it. Maybe I'll try distracting her or something."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, Eric, I think I know my own daughter, OK? It will be fine. She will get over it."

Sookie was on the verge of yelling so I decided that I'd really better shut up about it before Sookie realised my stuff was still packed and I was therfore pretty easy to throw out as a consequence. "So, can I help with lunch?" I asked.

Amelia and Sookie managed to call a truce for lunch, but spent most of the afternoon avoiding each other. Sookie and Felicia sat on a picnic rug on the lawn under a sun umbrella and Felicia cried every time she crawled onto the grass. Amelia tried to coax Bob out from under a bush to play with her. I tried to work out where was most neutral. It was fucking hard.

In the end I joined Sookie and Felicia. "She's still really upset." Sookie said. "I thought by now she'd be over it."

I still felt kind of bad about the whole thing. Which fucking annoyed me when there was a perfectly good scapegoat in form of an evil old cow called Lorena. I sighed. This wasn't quite the picture I had when Sookie had let me stay this morning.

Then I had an idea. "What about movie night?" I asked.

Sookie had been staring at Amelia who had her back to us. "What?" she said turning round.

"Movie night. Amelia likes that. We could have movie night tonight, let her pick one, watch it on your bed…" I trailed off hoping Sookie was getting the idea.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess we could try it." She didn't sound enthused.

"It'll be great!" I said, with more enthusiasm than was really required in an effort to win Sookie over. "And then afterwards, we could, I don't know…snuggle?" I looked at Sookie, hoping she was catching my meaning. If I was staying I got celebratory sex, didn't I?

"Oh, yeah, right." Sookie said in a flat voice. That didn't sound promising. "I, uh, meant to say I got my period today so there's no sex at the moment. I'm crampy and bloaty and feel like shit."

OK, so maybe I didn't. I guess this was welcome to relationship-land. I tried not to look too disappointed, because I really didn't think that would fucking go down well at the moment and just said "Right, no problem. But, uh, we can still do the movie for Amelia?"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's worth a shot." Sookie's voice was still flat.

"OK, well do you want me to tell her?"

"You might as well; she's not really talking to me at the moment." Sookie snorted. Oh, this wasn't good and I really wanted to fix it.

I wandered over to Amelia who was waving a stick at Bob. She had the end of it really close to his face, and was getting frustrated that he wouldn't come out and play. I didn't blame him really.

"Hey, Amelia" I said. She didn't say anything back, but stopped moving the stick. "So, um, your mom and I were thinking that maybe we could do movie night tonight? And you could pick? What do you think?"

"Yeah, that sounds OK, I guess. Eric, will you play with me?" I really wanted to spend my time with Sookie, who was still sitting there looking sad, but Amelia's little face looked so hopeful I couldn't say no. "Sure, OK" I said.

When I managed to extricate myself from Amelia, Sookie was stomping around the kitchen again. "So, we're on for movie night…" I said.

"Great." Sookie commented, in a voice that suggested it really wasn't.

"She's picking right now."

"Yeah, fine. Whatever. Hopefully that will snap her out of this mood." I wondered what would snap Sookie out of her mood.

"Nope. Absolutely not Eric. It will be fine." Sookie stomped around a bit then said "OK, well dinner's nearly ready. It's bangers and mash."

That meant fuck all to me, but I wasn't disappointed when I discovered I was getting sausages, mashed potatoes and gravy. I was getting kind of used to this being fed shit. I could understand why Bob hung around.

After dinner we sat on Sookie's bed. Amelia pointedly sat next to me on the outside of the bed, so I was between her and Sookie. When I'd asked Amelia what she wanted to watch earlier on I'd made a discovery. Apparently, there's more than one movie about Tinkerbell. Tonight we were watching the second one.

I zoned out for the first bit. Amelia wasn't asking questions, Sookie was busy giving Felicia a bottle then took her off to bed. After a while though I started to pay attention, simply for the lack of anything else to do. The plot seemed to involve Tinkerbell stomping around a lot and yelling at some dumb-shit boy fairy every time he tried to help.

And then it occurred to me. I watched Sookie stomp back into the room casting a dirty look at where Amelia was leaning into me. Shit, that's why Amelia liked Tinkerbell. It reminded her of her mother. I kind of wanted to tell someone my great revelation, but I wasn't sure that Sookie would appreciate the insight.

When the movie finished, Amelia said goodnight to me and trudged off with her mother silently. They were both so stubborn that at this point my money was on it lasting until Amelia left for college.

Sookie came back into the room and sat on the bed. "I just don't know what to do" she said. "I don't understand why she won't get over it. I could…I could just murder Lorena. I'm never speaking to that evil bitch again."

I just stayed quiet. I wasn't sure how tenuous my position in the house was and I still hadn't got around to taking anything out of my fucking bag.

Sookie scooted over the bed to snuggle into my side. "I'm going to have to call Lorena and tell her what she's done to Amelia. Hopefully she'll promise not to do it again."

"Yeah, I wouldn't bother." I said.

"I've got to do something Eric! She can't just get away with it. Amelia thinks I'm horrible and it's all her fault."

"I just don't think she'll listen, or care."

"Of course she'll care! She loves Amelia, underneath it all."

"But she doesn't give a shit about your feelings."

Sookie went quiet. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But I feel like I should do something. She can't just get away with it."

"Well I wouldn't accuse her outright, she'll deny it."

"Well what would you suggest, Eric?"

I sighed. Sookie was starting to get annoyed with me again. "I just think that she's a bitch, isn't that right?" Sookie nodded. "Well then you have to, I don't know. Out-bitch her."

"Out-bitch her?"

"Yeah. Do something that will make her back off once and for all. But which doesn't look like you've actually threatened her. Or accused her of anything."

Sookie was looking interested. "How do I do that?"

"That I don't know. But maybe you need to think about what Lorena herself would do?"

"Turn Amelia against me. You think I should turn Amelia against her?"

"Maybe. But it seems a bit mean to Amelia."

"Yeah, you're right. I can't really use my daughter as a pawn."

We were silent for a minute then I said "Maybe you just need to think about what another bitch would do to her. For instance, what would Sophie-Anne do?"

"Huh. Interesting. What would Sophie-Anne do, do you think?

"I don't know for sure" I said, but then I told Sookie what she had done when she'd let slip the whole story of Sookie's kids.

"Right" said Sookie, "she is a bitch. OK. I'll have to think about that. But right now I just want to be cheered up."

I perked up a bit at that, and then remembered the whole no sex thing that was going on at the moment.

"What's going to cheer you up?"

"Fancy another movie?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, with trepidation. I wasn't looking forward to the answer, foreseeing a night of chick flicks. Oh God, I hoped it wasn't going to be one of those terrible movies, one that was going to make Sookie cry. She was bad enough pissed but crying would be worse. And if I wasn't allowed to touch her I wasn't sure how I could snap her out of that.

"No I won't." I probably would, but I'd just sat through a Tinkerbell movie so I couldn't really complain.

"Um, OK. Well it is really dumb but it always cheers me up. Dodgeball."

"Dodgeball?" I asked. That was not what I was expecting at all.

"Yeah, do you think it's dumb? It's just that, I don't know, it always makes me laugh. So I watch it when I need cheering up." She looked at me shyly.

"No, no. That's, um, fine. Dodgeball it is then."

It was actually pretty nice sitting there with Sookie giggling away next to me. A lot better than it would have been watching her cry. I'd seen the movie before, but she was right, it was funny. We managed to have a pretty fucking good night.

When the movie was over Sookie wandered off to get ready for bed, which I guess was going to involve sleeping. She changed into a large t-shirt because apparently she was 'feeling too crampy for waistbands' and got into bed. She kissed me goodnight and rolled over. Pretty soon she was asleep.

I wasn't. I wasn't sleeping in the fucking least. I may have got the message about no sex, but my cock was struggling with it. Right now, nestled into Sookie's butt, he really wasn't on board with this whole plan and sleep was not happening anytime soon. She sighed in her sleep and pushed her butt further into me. This was just getting worse. I briefly contemplated just rubbing myself against her, but I wasn't sure how Sookie would feel about the resulting wet patch on her back.

This wasn't really a problem I'd had before. Mostly I just slept with women once and that was that. The closest thing I'd had to a relationship had been keeping a regular fuck-buddy around, and none of those women were about to invite me for sleepovers when they had a period. I briefly wondered whether this was nature's way of making sure we didn't get bored with each other or some shit like that, but I wasn't convinced I'd ever get bored of Sookie.

So I lay there for a bit longer, listening to the rain which had now started up. Then something landed on the bed that startled me. I almost yelled, but stopped myself just in time. It was Bob. Bob who was fucking wet. Weren't cats supposed to be scared of the rain? He seemed to think it was a great fucking idea to sit on Sookie's head to go to sleep though.

I was worried he would wake her up, so I shooed him off. But he just jumped back. I tried again and the same thing happened. "Fuck Bob" I whispered "Get the message and fuck off." He just glared at me.

In the end I got out of bed, picked him up and threw him out of the room, shutting the door in his face. That cat was a fucking nightmare. How Sookie slept through that I'll never know.

The whole episode though had helped me calm down, and I got back into bed, making sure to keep my groin away from Sookie this time, and finally got to sleep.

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